Doctoral Research.

This is a survey course introducing project management as a profession and an academic field of study. It provides the foundation for more advanced project management courses. It is a prerequisite to other courses in the degree program unless permission is granted. The student is introduced to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK Guide), as well as other international standards. Students will examine key tools and methodologies in use to manage large, complex projects and explore how these tools and techniques can be used to assess the project's overall status, its variance from the project plan and evaluate alternative recovery scenarios. Students will be introduced to the roles of project and program managers in today's enterprise and the tradeoffs they make among triple constraints of scope, time and cost.

Outsourcing is becoming more and more critical in todays economic environment making it essential that a project manager in the multi-national marketplace have a firm understanding of the negotiating, contracting and procurement environment and potential pitfalls. This course will address the interdependence of the make-or-buy decision-making process and the success of many projects in terms of risk management as well as achieving acceptable financial goals. Students will explore contracting pitfalls by addressing and proving an understanding of the key factors, regulations, and vocabulary which are critical for the project manager to be able to employ in their business dealings with contracting and legal departments.

A sound quality management strategy and plan are critical in today's complex business organizations and projects. Students in this course will review the history of quality efforts from Deming, Juran and Crosby in the setting of the original quality efforts, international competition, and the concept of Six-Sigma as initiated by the Motorola Corporation in response to that competition. The use of the Baldrige Excellence Framework for designing, implementing, and improving project and organizational practices that influence quality will be explored. Students will examine multiple specific process improvement approaches they could apply within their organizational / project quality plans, approaches such as preventions over Inspection and continuous Improvement of processes.